


Take Control

by themoonknowsmysecrets



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Betrayal, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied Relationships, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:08:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23738851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themoonknowsmysecrets/pseuds/themoonknowsmysecrets
Summary: The 5 times Elena did what others wanted and the one time she didn't.
Relationships: Elena Gilbert/Elijah Mikaelson, Elena Gilbert/Stefan Salvatore
Kudos: 47





	Take Control

**Author's Note:**

> I made up my own dialogue for the scenes so that this story would be slightly different from the actual scene and hopefully more interesting than just rereading what happened on the show, I hope that's okay! There's slight Stelena and implied Elejah vibes but it's not necessarily a romance. Without further ado...

1.

"I know it's a little soon, but I'd like for you to wear it," Stefan declared, opening the box he held in his palm. "You're the first person I've ever wanted to give this to."

Elena stared at the silver necklace in the small jewelry box before her, marvelling at the intricate pattern on its surface. It appeared to be a locket, Elena's favourite kind of necklace because of the memories to be stored inside. She smiled at Stefan, who equalled her in happiness.

"It's beautiful," she exclaimed, taking it from the box. She ran her thumb over the red jewel in awe and held it out to him, "help me put it on?"

His fingers ghosted feather-light over her skin and she couldn't keep the giggling smile off her face, feeling once again like a typical teenage girl in love in school. She didn't know if the "in love" part applied to her yet, but she didn't know where this would lead.

Elena spun around when the clasp was done up and grinned from ear to ear. He looked really nice in his red sports jersey, a picture-perfect high school boyfriend.

She hadn't known her fate upon stepping into school this year, she didn't know that she'd meet a cute, mysterious boy who was interested in her and seemed to care about her. It felt good to be admired and wanted, a different feeling than one she had with friends... or even Matt. She knew her mother would've loved him on sight, and that her father would have given him a stern talking-to about dating his little girl.

Just a month ago, she couldn't think about anything besides making it through the day, waiting for her suffering to end in slumber. And even then, her nights were restless with dreams of death and drowning, only this time, she died alongside her parents. Like she should have. Elena had never found her saviour, and she didn't think she ever would. Sometimes, she didn't know how she could handle the "not knowing".

Stefan had sensed the dim expression on her face and tilted his head softly, letting her know she would be able to confide in him. She shook her head and smiled gently, not ready to dispel such darkness into his life. Her thoughts were best left to herself, for now.

Besides, she refused to be plagued by grim thoughts and sadness because this was a happy day. She was determined to live again. It wouldn't be too hard to live, now. She had something to look forward to school every day.

Things were starting to look up.

2.

Elena cried out in alarm as Stefan ran down the steps of her father's old medical practice, into the flames that awaited him. She rushed to the doorway, eager to follow him into the destruction when Bonnie held her back. Elena looked at her friend questioningly, panic and confusion swelling in her eyes, as she attempted to break free from her friend's grip.

"Elena, don't go," Bonnie urged, a trickle of blood running down from her nose. The flames were running rampant and hard to tame, the extra strain of keeping Elena back was tampering with her ability to keep the flames at bay for Stefan. "I need you to stop struggling, I can't concentrate."

Elena slumped into her friend's arms, eyes never leaving the stairs as the burn of wood crackled around her, the sound ricocheting into the night. Bonnie hadn't let her follow Stefan into the burning building, but that was for her protection. Her safety wasn't guaranteed down there with the falling debris and smoke-filled air, she would have been more of a burden than anything, she supposed.

Bonnie looked into her eyes and promised, "I will keep the fire away long enough for him to get out."

She knew that what Bonnie said was true, yet she didn't know why. She shook her head slightly puzzled, the smoke causing her voice to rasp, "I thought you hated vampires, Bonnie. How is Stefan any different? If you save one Salvatore, you have to save the other."

What Elena had said wasn't something Bonnie hadn't already known. She nodded her head slowly, closing her eyes as she strained, her magic swelling around them in invisible wispy streams.

"I know," Bonnie admitted, "I'm doing this for you, Elena. I was the one who caused this to happen in the first place, they wouldn't be down there if I hadn't lied to you about unspelling the watch. I just… I love you, Elena. You're my best friend."

She had to admit, her trust in Bonnie had wavered and while she couldn't entirely forgive just yet Bonnie's betrayal, she knew her friend had been trying to do the right thing. And if Bonnie said that she wouldn't let Stefan die for her sake, then Elena had to put blind faith in her. There was nothing else she could do.

The two girls hugged each other fiercely, Elena closing her eyes to try and ward off thoughts of Stefan dying, and even Damon too.

"I just don't want to see you hurt," Bonnie whispered, feeling faint from the magic. She wasn't sure how much longer she could hold on.

It wasn't long, it appeared, because Stefan came racing up the stairs with a barely conscious Damon in his grasp. Elena gulped, watching as the staircase was eaten by a blaze of red, yellow and orange, devouring the unfortunate bodies left inside.

3.

"Jenna, no!" Elena shouted, dropping the phone in her hand and rushing over to her aunt's bleeding form on the kitchen floor.

Alaric crouched down beside them, holding a shaking Jenna still as Elena attempted to staunch the bleeding coming from the stomach wound. Her hands came away crimson.

The sight was jarring, blood flowing through the fingers as she applied pressure to Jenna's stomach and knowing that it wouldn't be enough until the ambulance came. She was the only thing standing between her aunt's life and death, the delicate piecing together, a crossroad between the kingdom of Zeus or Hades.

Alaric returned from calling 9/11 and together, they did everything in their power to keep Jenna surviving until the EMTs came to take her aunt, her parental figure, away. Alaric squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, before heading in the ambulance with them to the hospital.

She washed the blood on her hands with fervour, watching as the red fell from her fingers as she rubbed vigorously with soap.

No matter her efforts to keep who she loved safe, they always ended up hurt in the end. Because of her. Because of her selfishness.

Tears welled in her eyes and she wiped frantically at her eyes with her shirt sleeves. Even when her hands were clean of blood, she didn't stop scrubbing, needing to be rid of the feeling of "playing God" from her hands. She was oblivious as she eagerly played with fire, crying out with shock when it burned her in the process. Foolish girl. Katherine was not one to be manipulated. Elena knew that with clarity now.

She had never felt so low, so despicable. She had been selfish, not wanting to lose Stefan to Katherine, that she had failed to see how in the end, the doppelganger ancestor always got what she wanted, and she didn't care about the ruination she caused. Angering Katherine would only prove to be deadly, and Elena had done just that. It was stupid and foolish of her to think she could have it all: safety, security, love. Not in her new reality, full of vampires and evil doppelgangers and werewolves. Maybe in another life, another time.

But now, her life was irrevocably entangled with the supernatural world and things like love and safety weren't a given. Some things had to be sacrificed. And she would never in a billion years sacrifice her family- Jenna, Jeremy and even Alaric- again. She knew that to secure the happily ever after of her family's future, she would have to let Stefan go. Katherine had won.

Love would be her sacrifice.

4.

"I don't believe you."

Elena locked eyes with Elijah, clenching her jaw as she stared him down. She raised her eyebrow slightly with a small smirk, as if to say wanna bet?

"Believe me or don't, but if you refuse the deal, I will kill myself, then all your plans will be for naught. Protect my loved ones or watch me die."

He stood still: silent and wary and still unbelieving. His eyes were narrowed slightly as he eyed her quizzically, waiting for her next move to unfold.

She breathed in deeply, remembering the next stage of the plan. She wouldn't falter. The lives of the people she loved were at risk. Normally, she wasn't one to tempt death, yet there were more lives at stake than just hers. And she had to protect them.

Carefully, she pulled the large and extremely sharp chef's knife from the block on the counter and angled the blade towards her chest. She saw Elijah's eyes widen almost comically as she shoved the blade into her sternum. He rushed to the doorway, slapping the invisible barrier violently as she hunched over, thick metallic blood staining the front of her shirt. She doubted this would wash off easily.

"You have a deal," he barked, continuing his attempts to enter into the lake house. "No harm will come to your friends of my accord. I'll give you my word if you let me heal you."

The look in his eyes was one of panic and genuine truth and so, she stumbled forward barely able to stay upright.

The shock on Elijah's face was genuine when the white oak ash dagger was embedded into his heart. He gaped at her: their eyes locking, his mouth open wide, as the veins in his face became grey and the life drained away from his body, putting him into an unknown length of slumber.

He collapsed to the ground and so did she, setting him down as gently as she could with a wound in her chest. Her chest ached, both physically and metaphorically. This was for the best; the pros outweighed the cons and she'd had to. She was terrified of the outcomes upon his reawakening, though. Would they still be allies? Would he be able to understand that this is what she had to do?

Her head pounded dizzily as her vision started fading to black. If she weren't sitting already, she was sure her knees would have given way.

Stefan bit into his arm and pushed the open wound to Elena's mouth. She gulped in the blood, trying to ignore the acrid and bitter taste of blood as her wound healed and she felt her strength return. As she drank, her eyes didn't leave the motionless body of her ally on the ground.

5.

"Hey, Rebekah, need any help?"

Elena leaned against the doorway, the Original Vampire facing her back towards the Doppelganger. She met Rebekah's gaze in the mirror with a tentative smile, which was returned back to her.

"You look beautiful," Elena exclaimed, motioning to the strapless red, knee-length dress Rebekah had picked out for homecoming. The vampire smiled softly, a rare show of camaraderie and gentleness to the usually hard, bad bitch exterior. The girl before Elena was softer, more contemplative, and seemed very much like who Rebekah could've been before being forced into vampirism by her family, the choice of normal life taken away from her without a blink. Elena felt empathetic to her, she knew what it was like to lack choice.

"It's my first high school dance if you can believe. One thousand years and I've never had the chance to be a normal teenage girl," Rebekah seemed wistful, not really talking to Elena but more to herself.

She gazed at herself in the mirror with an expression that Elena couldn't entirely dissect, but what must have consisted partly of longing. Elena would never know how Rebekah felt at that moment, how alone she must have been, even living with family for all her thousand years. Elena didn't know what it was like to be constantly on the run from her own father, having to depend on less than reliable siblings, and getting her heart broken countless times over the years. Rebekah was envious of Elena in this regard, all people ever wanted to be was normal if they were not.

"Well," Elena said, zipping up the back of Rebekah's dress, "now's your chance at that."

Rebekah was so excited and nervous, she didn't hear the lie in Elena's voice, how the human's heart skipped a beat.

She looked into Rebekah's eyes in the mirror, placing a light hand on the Original's shoulder, before stabbing the dagger into the girl's heart from the back. She watched as Rebekah gasped, betrayal and outrage and hurt flashing in her eyes as her lovely pale skin turned grey, her veins desiccating before her eyes. A single tear rolled down the Mikaelson's face as she fully desiccated, and Elena laid her gently to the floor.

"Well done," Damon said, stepping into the room behind her. He surveyed the ancient vampire on the floor with a smirk, missing the way Elena wiped a single tear from her cheek. In another life, maybe they could have been good friends.

But there was no chance of that now.

6.

Elena watched as he lifted the flute in a toast, heart beating rapidly in her throat as said flute made its way to his lips. She mirrored the motion, the air of normality around her a façade.

On the inside, she didn't know what to do. Esther was the key to Klaus's destruction, to rid the world of his maniacal behaviour for the rest of time. It was all they'd worked for, and Esther's plan seemed foolproof. She had never guessed the extent of the Original witch's plans, though. Esther wanted to kill all her kids, calling them abominations to this world. Finn was willing to aid her with her plan. All she needed was Elena's secrecy, not a peep from Elena to another and the fate of the Originals would be sealed with the finality of death. Elena hadn't prepared for the feeling of guilt to wash over her. The plan to kill them all wasn't in the cards. She had to admit that the thought of killing them all made her stomach squirm. The Original family had done many awful things, she must confess, but it didn't mean that they weren't human once, that they didn't have feelings or care just like she. The thought of ending them like that made her stomach churn with illness.

Her palms felt slick with sweat. She didn't want all of them to die… there was some she respected, cared for, even. They were not all bad.

She knew with determination that Esther's plot wouldn't suffice. They would just have to find another way. She knew the Salvatores would be disappointed, and betrayed even, to know that this was how she felt now. She wished that Stefan and Damon wouldn't hate her too much, in the end. But this is what she had to do.

She would not let Elijah die.

Just as the liquid had kissed his mouth, she whispered so faintly that no human would be able to discern the sound.

"Stop," she pleaded, barely audible over the clinks of glasses and laughter throughout the room.

Elijah paused, the liquid seconds away from being consumed. To others, it would seem as though he had taken a slight sip, the residue of the champagne wetting his lips.

The flute tilted away from his face as he regarded her with quizzical eyes. Her eyes flickered to Finn, who stood on the steps regarding them with narrowed eyes. She prayed to the heavens that Elijah would notice the subtle shift of eyes to the staircase. He did, and he set his glass down. He had put blind trust in her, and she would not let him down.

"A breath of fresh air would be nice about now," he declared, holding his arm out for Elena to take. She did, wrapping her hands around his elbow as he led her outside.


End file.
